Founded in 1871, Smith College is the premier all-women's college in the United States.Smith College, which was founded in 1871, is the premier all-women's college in the United States.(Be careful, however, not to lose some needed emphasis by over-pruning the word "which," which is sometimes necessary, is not evil.) The "which clause" can often be shortened to a simple adjective. Reducing Clauses to Phrases, Phrases to Single Wordsīe alert for clauses or phrases that can be pared to simpler, shorter constructions. Occasionally, an abbreviation like CD, ATM becomes more of an idea unto itself than a shortened version for a set of words, and the abbreviation ought to be allowed to act as modifier. "CD disk" can be redundant, but nowadays the abbreviation CD can refer to a number of things, including the machine itself. It is perhaps too easy to get caught up in this, however. It sounds particularly silly when we come up with a plural such as "CPU units" Central Processing Unit units. They add that it is redundant to say "HIV virus" because HIV means Human Immunodeficiency Virus, "AIDS syndrome" because AIDS means Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome, "CPU unit" because CPU means Central Processing Unit. Some people insist it is redundant to say "ATM machine" because ATM means Automated Teller Machine. In the field of economics/law enforcementĪ special breed of redundancy is proliferating in our modern world as we increasingly rely on abbreviations and acronyms in the busyness of our technology. Redundant phrases are bad habits just waiting to take control of your writing. Many uneducated citizens who have never attended school continue to vote for better schools.Ī phrase that repeats itselflike "true fact," "twelve noon," "I saw it with my own eyes"is sometimes called a pleonasm. Here are some notes toward efficiency and conciseness in writing. Whether it's a two-word quip or a 200-word bear, a sentence must be a lean, thinking machine. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. White, but much of the really good stuff is the same.) We also recommend "The Perfectibility of Words," by Robert Hartwell Fiske, editor of the online journal Vocabula Review. (This online text is not exactly the same as the familiar text you'll find in bookstores, which was edited by E.B. In addition to reading this section of the Guide and taking the quizzes at its conclusion, we urge you to visit William Strunk's Elements of Style, which has had a salutary effect on several generations of writers who have bought "the little book," and which is now, thanks to the Bartleby Project, online.
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